So here’s something super relevant to the Olympia music scene. The Northern, Olympia’s only all ages music venue has reopened in a new location! It was rumored the Olympia All Ages Project went belly up and had to close it doors due to costs last year, but not so. According to volunteer Kelsey Smith of Timberland Regional Library fame, the building was sold to another proprietor who decided to do something else with the space-leaving the project homeless. And although we all enjoyed moshing amongst the stacks and getting slam-danced into the magazine racks at the Olympia branch of said library, I think its safe to say that the music scene suffered without its all ages space.

Northern’s first show at its new location (414 1/2 Legion Way) was the 28th of April with subsequent shows during Arts Walk Weekend. Grand opening events are still in full swing. Check it out:

May 4th @8PM-$5:

May 6th @ 3PM-FREE!

A work party! Hurray! The Northern really needs volunteers to come out and help them complete their new space. SO show up early! Your hard work will be rewarded at 3 pm with a free Sunday matinee, and this is cool: Sam McPheeters (author and lead singer of Rise Against, Men’s Recovery Project, and Wrangler Brutes) will be doing a reading of his new book, “The Loom of Ruin”. The book was published just last month and is a satire about the angriest man in the world. Interesting. Also performing will be Craig Extine and the Exiles, Olympia’s own Punk/country/acoustic/western hymn/etc.

The people at Volcano are great! Anthony Neff used to DM their Dungeons and Dragons games back in the day. You think I’m kidding, ask em about it. Google some of these bands and go see em! Or not, do what you feel like, but it is free, and people will think you’re cool if you go.

Shuffle Dueling is a fun thing we do here at The Least Pretentious Music Blog Ever. The rules are simple: two of our writers sit down with their ipods or mp3 players on shuffle. They then write down the first five songs that come up on shuffle (skipping audio books, stand up comedy, sounds clips, etc). Then people vote on who has made the best random five-song playlist. After a while, the results will be be locked and the winner goes on to round two where they face a new opponent. Win and loss records will be created over time. Now that you know the rules…IT’S ON!!!

So, I finally bought a turntable. I have been wanting one for a long time but for some reason I thought it was way too late to start collecting vinyl. I have so much music, and would want to get ALL of my favorites (probably hundreds of albums), and I have been to so many shows where I could have gotten the record and…I don’t know, these are pretty stupid reasons but whatever, those were my thoughts. I kept hearing that small nagging voice randomly telling me that I need a record player in my life, possibly fueled by my nostalgia of listening to records as a kid and flipping through my parent’s record collection. I remember listening to The Police’s Synchronicity and Michael Jackson’s Bad on vinyl, and I have missed the feeling of having a great album in my hands, tearing off the plastic, pulling it out of that paper sleeve with as much care as my trembling hands could give, putting in on and dropping that needle down, hearing the slight fuzz as the needle settles into the grooves and then a sweet sweet feeling sets in when that clear beautiful sound comes blasting out of the speakers….ahhh, bliss. I would always reverently soak in the album art, the liner notes, lyrics and pictures, anything that was on the album sleeve, as I went through my first few listens of an album, trying to get a feel for it all, reading every word as if they were the most poignant and meaningful words ever spoken (written, whatever).

My first record? Radiohead, The King of Limbs, one of my favs from last year. As I listened to that record I was BLOWN AWAY and have vowed to get every one of their albums on vinyl so I can hear it all like that. The clarity of it all, the subtle nuances and complex layers of sound, the Thom Yorke mumbling that suddenly sounds like words or lyrics or something, it is truly an experience to listen to it in that format.

Don’t y’all miss that? Wasn’t it a great time, when you so looked forward to something new to be released by your favorite band and the happiest moments were when you brought that sucker home and popped it on and cracked out on it for days and weeks? There was no internet to leak the album onto or download or stream before you decide to buy it. These days there is so much great accessible music out there and all you have to do is spend some time online to find it. I can get lost online searching and streaming and listening and buying and downloading. I can get 3 or 4 albums at once, throw them on a playlist and listen to it over and over for a while. And I love doing all that, I really do. But, but…..something is different, there’s that old feeling that seems lost now, the ritual of buying some coveted album and hearing it for the first time and just getting lost in it forever.

That feeling doesn’t have to be lost. We can still buy and listen to vinyl. We SHOULD still buy and listen to vinyl. I found a really rad turntable that also plays CDs, tapes, iPods, and radio. I now have a way to play every single method of music I could want, all in one appliance. And I have some old tapes I wanna play, I still have CDs I wanna listen to. And of course I have everything on my iPod as well. One thing I did not realize as I bought my first few records was that they all came with a CD or access to a digital copy so you can enjoy it on the turntable at home and on the iPod on the go. That is a pretty great deal, I think. I recently purchased a record from a small label in Boston and although it took a week to get the album I was able to download it immediately. So, overall I am so pleased with the quality of sound from of the records and the availability of the music in different formats. I don’t know why it took me so long to come around to this, but I’m arguing for buying vinyl whenever available for the ultimate listening experience.

And yeah, I know that a lot of people aren’t willing to buy music at all these days, and I understand that. Vinyl is for the serious fan or collector, I agree. I just think that if I want to actually buy something, vinyl is now my preferred format. I feel like I’m getting the most bang for my buck now.

And yeah, I know that there’s a lot of pretentious fucks out there who act all self-righteous about only listening to vinyl and all that, but it doesn’t have to be like that. I promise you can listen to vinyl for all the reasons I talked about without becoming a jerk. I mean, look at me. I write for The Least Pretentious Music Blog Ever so I’m proof that you can do some things that may be seen as pretentious without becoming that way.

Few things here. First of all, Kalamazoo Michigan is a real place. Second of all, deep within the recesses of what I thought was a fictional realm invented by doctor suess, is The Extreme Unicorns. Third, I know this is kind of late, but! Nothing Nice to Say is off of hiatus, (wooooo!!!!!!) so that’s pretty cool I guess.

Anyway- The Extreme Unicorns. Vocalist/bassist Lex gives the band that sort of, tamer (relatively speaking) almost riot grrl vocal sound you might find in Slutever or The Gits. Plus, guitarist Tim (one word) and drummer Rob O’Toole have soft gingery beards that have been known to cure blindness.

They do some really great covers of The Misfits and Britney Spears, and! They only have one original song out now, so now is your chance to say you liked them before they were cool!

Another show at The Swamp House. This one is coming up quick! If you’re looking for something to do friday night, why not stop by and show your support for these fine bands?

Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to this show (friday 13th I’ll be out searching for Templar Gold), but if you attend; please comment and give your opinions about the show. I do not know much about these bands, however I’ve listened to what they have available online and I can comfortably say that I like what I hear.

How about checking out “Mas Sol Collective Presents:Body of Art “ at The Aqua House. It promises to be night oh much art and Thalo for only a $5 *suggested* donation. Body art provided by Olympia’s very talented Ariana Throne and a team of make up, henna and hair artists.

Once again, I know virtually nothing about these artists/ DJs. I trust the Mas Sol Collective crowd, though. They put on a good show. However, If you have sampled their beats in the past then shoot us a comment and help fill our knowledge gap.

Sadly, these two shows are occurring at the same time, so you might need to make a decision between the two. Worst case scenario, you can see the show at The Swamp House and catch the last couple artists at The Aqua House.

UPDATE:

Sorry, I seem to have read the details wrong about the Mas Sol Collective show. I mentioned earlier that it was at the Midnight Sun, it is in fact at The Aqua House. The details above have been changed to reflect this.

Half-way through December we bring you another post about something! Here’s four bands from Olympia you should probably at least see live, if not listen to in your spare time. Trust me. I have a blog/spare time.

If you enjoy punk, metal, indie, hardcore, some combination of them all, or music from your own town, go ahead and listen. It’s all from Olympia, WA, hence the post´s title. It’s clever, work with me.

Christan Mistress

Get their shit here. I’d write a longer description, but just listen to the damn songs, its great. If you like metal.

Gun Outfit

Its pretty. Kind of sounds like if Gibby Haynes had formed Modest Mouse with Caroline Keith and every so often they played a punk song. For the sake of clarity, Caroline Keith is actually the singer/songwriter for Gun Outfit, Gibby Haynes is the singer for the Butthole Surfers, whose voice I just likened to Dylan Sharp, the other singer/songwriter for Gun Outfit…anyway, check out their lastfm page. GO!

Tartarus

OK- So the recording quality isn’t amazing, but these guys are disturbingly talented live. I mean really, all of them can fucking shred. I recommend you look em up here and be sure to catch ´em live when you can, finally got myself there in October and it was epic. So really, go so, see them, enjoy.

Go Get The Scissors

These guys had a following in Olympia once upon a time when I was about thirteen. Regardless they’re still great, but as far as I know pretty have much stopped existing. Guess when suddenly the whole scene was either hardcore or christian post-punk there just wasn’t room for ´em. Either way I enjoy it, and thus my taste is inflicted onto you.

Imagine if you will, if the Adolescents and Josie And The Pussycats got hammered, and had a crazy night of wild unprotected sex in the romantic confines of a Motel 6. Well now that this image has left your head, you can finally understand the kickass love child of this unexpected union that is TacocaT.

I had the pleasure of seeing these folks a few years back with Schoolyard Heroes, a band who I disdain with a seething passion, (but that’s for a different time). Anyhoo, Tacocat mesmerized me and those around me with an up-beat poppy post-punk style, that just makes you want to love and dance, kinda like an audio Hippy-Flip. Besides being supportive of dyslexia; TacocaT just warps you back to a simpler time of Freshman year. A time when you only want to go to first base, when you’re saving for that sick volcano, when you’re living in your parents basement, and when you’re really high and realize Jack Black was in the movie Waterworld. To top it all off, if you look at the picture above, there’s another surprise….Twins!

So by combining twins, fun, and slightly demented teen punk-pop, we find that TacocaT really is a truly riveting band, straight from Seattle who you all should hear, see, and feel. They receive an A for automatically ass-kicking.

Recently at Le Voyeur in Olympia, Washington I had the pleasure of viewing Admiral St. Grey as the artist I Feel Awesome. This outlandish Brooklyn based artist comes with a sound that I guess could be called music. According to what some really high kids told me, it’s called “futuristic progressive minimalist.” I would definitely describe it as better than being stabbed, but that’s still debatable.

Ms. Grey’s music transcends both genre boundaries, and for that matter logic and reason, all with some proudly with unsolicited gusto. The first EP by I FEEL AWESOME comes with some minimalist drums similar to a an African beat, with a techno backdrop reminiscent of being in a refinery, then lovingly wrapped together with vocals sounding oddly similar to the musical styling of Tsim Fuckis (look it up).

Grey also recently released an EP with her band, Glass Lamborghini, the bands music making about as much sense as their name does. All I can really say about that album is the best song, titled “Make It Sparkle” (linked here), is comprised of a generic synthy beat, with once again minimalist drums. Accompanying Ms. Grey at Le Voyeur were three other “experimental” artists, entitled: Chains Isabella, Cult of Zir, and finally SQURM. I use experimental in these terms the same way mustard gas started as an “experiment.” To be honest a child with a chemistry set would have been more interesting than this dribble. I even walked out of SQURM’s set when the music dropped and there was literally eight straight seconds of him just screaming (I wore a watch).

I must say the one saving grace of this boondoggled catastrophe you could maybe call music was the venue. Le Voyeur has a visually magnificent show room, not to mention a very pleasant restaurant/bar area. The staff are awesome and the foods not half bad, I recommend the fries. All this greatness is accompanied by an excellent bar tender and an extensive list of fine imported beers from around the world.

So in conclusion Le Voyeur in Olympia Washington gets an A rating for Awesome bar/venue. Grey and her experimental posse get a F for Fuck you, and your wasting of my time.

Its finally time! June 10th is here in five days and lets all in the Northwest get ready for a weekend long orgy of musical greatness. As repeatedly whored via this site, Mas Sol begins this Friday at Fort Matlock at five pm! Likewise starting Friday is the 17th Experimental Music Festival in Olympia!

The 17th Olympia Experimental Music Festival

Sponsored by KAOS 89.3 FM, The Olympia Experimental Music Festival can safely be called a fixture in the Olympia arts and music community, this festival celebrates a DIY art ethic within the Northwests traditional radically left music and arts communities. With a mixture of “high profile experimental/avant” and the relatively unknown artists, The Experimental Music Festival is truly a unique feature of Olympia Washington. The first two days of the festival (June 10th and 11th) will feature back to back acts at The Northern, leading up to the massive experiment “Drone for Peace” held at the legislative rotunda (416th 14th ave SW), followed by all musical artists who incorporate visual projection at The Northern. For more information contact the festivals facebook page, or the Festival Director: Nathan Markiewicz at lalungs@msn.com. Below is a listing of the line up for The Experimental Music Festival:

Friday June 10th

Paintings for Animals (Olympia, WA)

Big Tom the Lithuanian (Olympia, WA)

LA Lungs (Tacoma, WA)

Marlo Eggplant (Portland, OR)

Echos of Infiniti (Olympia, WA)

Four-Dimensional Nightmare (Olympia, WA)

Eurostache (San Francisco, CA)

Saturday June 11tt

Wood Paneling (Olympia, WA)

Squim (Portland, OR)

Violet (Olympia, WA)

The Dead Air Fresheners (I-5 Corridor)

Night Jar (Olympia, WA)

Pavonine (Austin, TX)

Megabats (Seattle, WA)

Sunday June 12th, 1pm @ The Legislative Rotunda (416 14th Ave SW)

Drone for Peace in the Key of F: Performed in a variety of U.S. cities, Drone for Peace is a sonic ritual performed by local artists, exploring the key of F, aligning to the Heart Chakra. Here performed in the rotunda of the Capitol’s Legislative Building, it manifests as a small ensemble of string players and vocalists, and invites all willing and interested participants from the Olympia community to collaborate and contribute to global healing.